1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an inverter circuit, a power converter circuit including an inverter circuit, or an electric vehicle including a power converter circuit.
2. Description of the Related Art
Power devices are indispensable elements for drive controllers of high-power electric appliances such as vacuum cleaners and washing machines. In recent years, power devices are beginning to be applied to electric vehicles such as electric cars. Therefore, research and development of power devices which may create a larger market in future are being active.
There are many examples of power devices, such as switching elements for use of high power, DCDC converter circuits, and inverter circuits. An inverter circuit can be used in an insulated DCDC converter circuit but it acts as a DC (direct current)-AC (alternate current) converter circuit when used alone. Inverter circuits are important for lower power consumption and downsizing of devices.
Among inverter circuits, half-bridge inverter circuits and full-bridge inverter circuits which enable bidirectional excitation of transformers produce high utilization efficiency. A full-bridge inverter circuit allows a voltage input thereto to be used by a transformer without being lost, thereby producing great power conversion efficiency. Full-bridge inverter circuits are therefore suitable particularly for use of high power.
In a full-bridge inverter circuit, control of the switching of transistors in half-bridge circuits is important for efficient power conversion. Each of the half-bridge circuit includes a high-side transistor and a low-side transistor. A control circuit in the full-bridge inverter circuit controls the switching of the high-side and low-side transistors in each of the half-bridge circuits.
Patent Document 1 discloses a method for controlling a full-bridge inverter circuit.